The Chickamauga Dam and its environs

by Robert Sparks Walker

HIWASSEE ISLAND

A few miles upstream from the obliterated Dallas Island there was located until the completion of the Chickamauga Dam, the second largest island in the Tennessee River. This was Hiwassee Island, which contained 781 acres, was two miles long, and a mile wide. It received its name from the Hiwassee River, which finds the Tennessee east of the island.

Beginning in 1937 and continuing for two consecutive years the Archaelogical Department of the University of Tennessee succeeded in completing the excavations of all village sites and mounds on this historical island. The result of these investigations were published in 1946 by the University Press, Knoxville, in a book entitled the Hiwassee Island, by T. M. N. Lewis and Madeline Kneberg.

When the white settlers came into Tennessee, they found Hiwassee Island was being ruled by the honest and kind-hearted Cherokee Chief Oolooteeskee, popularly known as John Jolly. In 1809, when Sam Houston was 16 years old, he visited Hiwassee Island. Chief Jolly became so fond of the lad that he adopted him, rechristening him The Raven.

Several years previous, Jolly’s brother, Tahkinsteeska, had moved to Arkansas and was the principal chief of the Cherokees in the West. In 1818, John Jolly decided to join his brother. Although agents of the United States had been persuading the Cherokee to move to the new lands west of the Mississippi, it was necessary that when they chose to do so they must obtain a permit to make the change, as indicated in the following official paper:

“John Jolly, the bearer, having under his superintendence 16 boats laden with Cherokee families and their property are on their way to the Arkansas River to enter lands designated for them by the Treaty in July last, in exchange for lands here relinquished by them to the United States, which Treaty was constitutionally ratified the 25th of December, 1817. The said Cherokee Nation being at peace and friendship with the United States, are entitled to the confidence and friendly offices of the citizens, and therefore recommended to all such with whom they may meet on their passage to the place of their destination. They are hereby particularly recommended for aid (should their circumstances need it) to the officers commanding military posts, or stations on their line of movement.

“Given under my hand and seal of the Cherokee Agency the 26th day of January, 1818, and in the 43rd year of American Liberty and Independence.”

(SEAL)

RETURN J. MEIGS.

Sam Houston, however, did not go with his foster-father on this long journey. He remained in Tennessee and studied law. A few years later, Houston was elected governor of Tennessee. Not long thereafter he married a Miss Allen of Nashville, Tennessee, and in three months he left her and resigned as governor. Houston then sought his old friend and foster-father on the Arkansas River and married Chief Jolly’s niece, a Cherokee by the name of Tiana Rogers. Houston’s next move took him to Texas where he became commander-in-chief of the Texan army. After defeating Santa Ana in April, 1836, thereby winning the independence of Texas, Houston became the first president of the republic of Texas. It was due to his negotiations that Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845. The flooding of the Hiwassee Island by the waters of the Chickamauga Dam put an end to its history as a place where human beings might reside.

If we could have stood on the bank of the river here almost 200 years ago, we would have been amazed at the sight of the curious kinds of watercraft floating by. Perhaps, the most primitive type would have been the bullboat, which was made by stretching a wet buffalo hide with hair on the inside over a framework of willow strips, in the shape of a tub or a canoe, about seven feet in diameter. The bowl-shaped type would carry about 700 pounds. It was propelled with a paddle made of wood, or with the shoulder blade of a buffalo fastened to a stick for a handle.

Every now and then would have passed us a big flat boat resembling in shape a big box floating on the water, carrying as its cargo human families with their possessions. This rather frail boat was known as an ark, because it suggested the Biblical boat made by Noah. The ark served the early American settler so well that one writer at least has aptly asserted that “it was out of the womb of an ark that our nation was born.”

Steamboat being warped through “The Suck”

We would have been well entertained by the frequent passing of the flatboats. The average rivercraft of this sort would carry about 400 barrels of goods. About two-thirds of the flatboat was roofed like an ordinary house to keep families and cargo dry.

There also would have been seen many popular keelboats. Compared to the boxlike ark, the keelboat was graceful, long and slender, ranging in length from forty to eighty feet, sharp at each end and with a shallow keel. Most of the keelboats were well roofed. Sometimes a sail was hoisted to aid the crew in the difficult task of rowing the boat.

Bullboat made of buffalo skin and used by the Indians on the Tennessee River

We would have seen some barges, too. The average length of this kind of boat was from fifty to one hundred twenty feet with a width from twelve to twenty feet. A cabin was built at the stern, and fastened to the one or two masts were square sails.

Primitive types of boats that were used on the Tennessee River

1—Pirogue; 2—Canoe; 3—Bateau; 4—Keelboat; 5—Flatboat; 6—Ark; 7—Barge.

Besides the light canoes, we would have noticed the passing of the dug-out, known as a pirogue. A boat of this kind was made by hollowing out a log of cottonwood, tulip, sycamore or other tree with an adz or by fire. One or both ends were left square. A very large pirogue would have passed which was made by chopping out two large trees, and using one tree for each side of the boat, filling in the middle with planks, and then sealing the bottom so that it was watertight. Such a boat would carry several tons of produce and as many as twenty-five men.

There would be passing a few flattened boats with tapering ends known as bateaux. A bateau was not as clumsy as the pirogue to handle in the water. The very light bateau was known as a skiff. The sizes of the bateaux varied, and each of the larger kinds used on the river was able to carry fifty tons of cargo.